Principal Investigator(s):
Oberly, James W., University of Wisconsin - Eau-Claire. Department of History

Summary:

These instructional materials were prepared for use with
AGRICULTURAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC RECORDS FOR HOUSEHOLDS IN THE NORTH, 1860
(ICPSR 7420), compiled by Fred Bateman and James D. Foust. The data
file and accompanying documentation are provided to assist educators
in (an SPSS portable file) instructing students about the history of
agriculture and rural life in the North, just prior to the Civil
War. An instructor's handout has also been included. This handout
contains the following sections, among others: (1) General goals for
student analysis of quantitative datasets, (2) Specific goals in
studying this dataset, (3) Suggested appropriate courses for use of
the dataset, (4) Tips for using the dataset, and (5) Related secondary
source readings. Demographic, occupational, and economic information
for over 21,000 rural households in the northern United States in 1860
are presented in the dataset. The data were obtained from the
manuscript agricultural and population schedules of the 1860 United
States Census and are provided for all households in a single township
from each of the 102 randomly-selected counties in 16 northern states.
Variables in the dataset include farm values, livestock, and crop
production figures for the households that owned or operated farms
(over half the households sampled), as well as value of real and
personal estate, color, sex, age, literacy, school attendance,
occupation, place of birth, and parents' nationality of all
individuals residing in the sampled townships.

These instructional materials were prepared for use with
AGRICULTURAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC RECORDS FOR HOUSEHOLDS IN THE NORTH, 1860
(ICPSR 7420), compiled by Fred Bateman and James D. Foust. The data
file and accompanying documentation are provided to assist educators
in (an SPSS portable file) instructing students about the history of
agriculture and rural life in the North, just prior to the Civil
War. An instructor's handout has also been included. This handout
contains the following sections, among others: (1) General goals for
student analysis of quantitative datasets, (2) Specific goals in
studying this dataset, (3) Suggested appropriate courses for use of
the dataset, (4) Tips for using the dataset, and (5) Related secondary
source readings. Demographic, occupational, and economic information
for over 21,000 rural households in the northern United States in 1860
are presented in the dataset. The data were obtained from the
manuscript agricultural and population schedules of the 1860 United
States Census and are provided for all households in a single township
from each of the 102 randomly-selected counties in 16 northern states.
Variables in the dataset include farm values, livestock, and crop
production figures for the households that owned or operated farms
(over half the households sampled), as well as value of real and
personal estate, color, sex, age, literacy, school attendance,
occupation, place of birth, and parents' nationality of all
individuals residing in the sampled townships.

Access Notes

This study is intended for instructional use, and may be subsets of the original data. Variables and/or cases may have been removed to facilitate
classroom use.

Data in this collection are available only to users at ICPSR member institutions.
Please log in so we can determine if you are with a member institution and have
access to these data files.

Dataset(s)

Study Description

Citation

Oberly, James W. Agricultural and Demographic Records for Rural Households in the North, 1860: [Instructional Materials]. ICPSR03463-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-03-02. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03463.v1

This collection was archived by ICPSR to promote the use of social science data in undergraduate and graduate education through the sharing of faculty-submitted ICPSR data-based instructional materials developed for use in the classroom.

The data are provided as an SPSS portable
file, which was created from the ASCII data and SPSS data definition
statements files available from ICPSR 7420.

Methodology

Sample:
The data (AGRICULTURAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC RECORDS FOR RURAL
HOUSEHOLDS IN THE NORTH, 1860 [ICPSR 7420]) were collected using a
two-stage variable-cluster sample design. A random sample of 102
counties in 16 northern states was drawn. From each of these counties
one non-urban township was randomly selected. Census records from all
households in the selected townships were included in the study.

Data Source:

manuscript schedules of the 1860 United States Census

Restrictions: At the request of the principal investigator,
publications that draw upon the data, AGRICULTURAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC
RECORDS FOR RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN THE NORTH, 1860 (ICPSR 7420), must
observe the copyright held by Professors Bateman and Foust.